Introduction to Computers: Fall 2013

Term paper: Final Version

This is it! You should have a well defined subject (this was refined from the prospectus and the progress report), you should have done your research and you should have prepared a rough draft with your ideas organized in sections / paragraphs. If you are not yet there, it is time to catch up!This is it! You should have a well defined subject (this was refined from the prospectus and the progress report), you should have done your research and you should have prepared a rough draft with your ideas organized in sections / paragraphs. If you are not yet there, it is time to catch up!

The next step is to prepare a the final version of your paper. Remember, it should ultimately contain the following elements:

• First page: A separate page with the title of your paper, your name, student ID, email address, and other identifying information (course, quarter, instructor, and date)
• Introduction: introduce the analytical question(s) you will discuss.
• Description: list the arguments you want to make, with links to your research.
• Discussion: list the points that need to be discussed in response to the arguments you included in your description.
• Answer and Conclusion:
• References

The term paper should be approximately 2500 words in length (from Introduction to Conclusion). 2500-word is approximately 9-10 pages of laser printed output when double-spaced using a proportional 11-point font.

A few elements to consider when preparing your fnal version:

• Now it is time to care about the presentation of your paper! A paper with a sloppy presentation (bad fonts -too small or too large-, bad margins, overall look) will not appeal to the reader, whatever the quality of its content. You have learned how to use Word while in high school, and even as part of this class (in a lab session): now it is time to show what you remember!
• There is nothing more embarrassing than spelling and/or grammar mistakes! It is time to reveal your "editor" self! Read and proofread your text with care. Use tools to help you: Word provides a spell checker (it underlines words it does not know in red) as well as a grammar checker (underlined in green): pay attention to what is says. Remember however that you do not have to agree with Word all the time (sometimes valid words are not in Word dictionary). Remember also that Word does not detect all mistakes: Word does not know about the meaning of the text it checks!
• Once you finish writing your paper, it is a good idea to let it sit for 1 day, and then come back to it. Read your text aloud, or have somebody you trust read it aloud; this exercise is a very good way to improve your writing.
• Make sure that if you use a quote, you reference it properly. Plagiarism is a misconduct!
• Add your references at the end of your paper and format them using APA formatting (here is a good place for finding information on APA styles for references: http://ucdavis.libguides.com/content.php?pid=265545&sid=2192471).

BEWARE! If you tell the grammar checker to ignore an error, then it will never highlight it again! If you think you have eradicated all of the grammatical and spelling errors, and are ready to submit the final version of your paper, then have the grammar checker recheck your paper. To recheck the document: 1) Select the Options menu item from the Tools menu; 2) Select the Spelling and Grammar tab; and 3) click the Recheck Document button.

Turning in your draft

Save your paper as TermPaper.doc (or TermPaper.docx) and turn it in on Smartsite.

Grading

Here is the grade sheet we will use for the term paper:

There are two things to note in this grade sheet. First, you e-drop your term paper at Smartsite. The file must be named "TermPaper.doc" or "TermPaper.docx". Second, you will lose one point for every grammar error that your paper contains. We will use the Word grammar checker to find the grammar errors. You should too! It will highlight almost all grammatical errors, including passive voiced sentences.